The present invention relates generally to applications for wireless devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for enriching services provided in cooperation with wireless mobile devices.
Increases in information processing capability and decreases in the cost of computing have led to the proliferation of mobile devices in all aspects of society. Mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, cellular phones, and laptops, are utilized in schools, homes and in business. Furthermore, with the decreased costs of mobile devices, it has become more feasible from a cost perspective to use mobile devices for tasks, and to carry out functions, which were previously done without the use of mobile devices.
Already, there are almost 400 million mobile phone users, with the number projected to reach over one billion by 2005. Globally, 240 million people are predicted to use their phones for wireless data exchange by the end of 2004—up from 26 million in 1999.
Even with these astounding numbers, however, there is one inescapable fact: by far, the worst display screen in the room is likely to be the one on a mobile phone or personal digital assistant. Mobile devices have small display screens, limited sound amplification, and, presently, limited connectivity or bandwidth. Delivering more information, in higher fidelity, using these tiny displays, will be difficult at best.
This is not to say that industry has not attempted to improve consumers' usage of these mobile devices. For example, there are new ways in which technologies such as PDAs, wireless communications, GPS, and onboard computers can be used to provide new services centered around the automobile in support of the tasks that drivers typically engage in. Mobile technology may also be used in support of physical shopping to augment the physical shopping experience of a shopper in a mall. For example, using a PDA equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, one application maintains a profile of the shopper along with a current shopping list, and after establishing the current location of the shopper, presents relevant offers from retailers proximate to the shopper, which is described by A. Fano in U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,718, filed Feb. 26, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference. It has also been suggested that barcode scanner equipped PDAs could be used to perform live price comparisons within a bookstore.
Nevertheless, these uses of PDA's still are limited to providing services to the user through the PDA display. What is needed is a method and system that can deliver context-based enhanced services to a user that go beyond the limitations of the display on the mobile device.